


Thought Broadcasting

by ruthmakesstuff (orphan_account)



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, bipolar!Anders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 02:47:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4462571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/ruthmakesstuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anders fears a new Templar plot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thought Broadcasting

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Paranoia](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4395032) by [daggerpen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daggerpen/pseuds/daggerpen). 



_Maker, I’m scared._

Anders had been suspicious of it for a while. He’d be walking around and people would turn and look at him funny, like he was talking to himself, and had said something particularly distasteful. Fenris, Fenris in particular did this a lot. At first he put this down to Fenris’s dislike of him as a mage, but as time went on he noticed other people doing it too. Isabela. Varric.

It was Varric that tipped him off.

“What’re you thinking, Blondie?”

It was the way that he said it – as if he _knew_ what he was thinking, and was admonishing him.

“I – I don’t know what you mean,” he stuttered in reply.

“Thinking,” Isabela tacked on, “what – are – you. It’s not a difficult question.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Anders said, feeling suddenly persecuted. They all watched him turn pale, and a look of horror dawned on his face.

“I – I have to go now,” he said, before abruptly walking away.

 

“Anders,” Hawke said, standing in the middle of the empty clinic, “talk to me.”

“It’s the Templars, Hawke. They’ve done something,” he said, scared and upset.

Hawke stifled the feelings of panic that rose in her chest – she was more useful to Anders being here for him and ready to fight Templars than she was giving in to her anxieties. Still, she couldn’t hide the urgency in her voice.

“What? What have they done? Is it the mage underground? Have they found you?”

“They’re – they’re broadcasting my _thoughts_ , Hawke. Everyone can hear them! Everyone!” Anders sounded genuinely distressed, “I don’t know how. Don’t ask me how.”

Hawke’s panic simmered down momentarily before flaring up again – neither of them were at risk of any physical harm from Templars, but at times like this Anders’s biggest danger was himself. Still, this required tackling in a different way than an immediate Templar threat would.

“Well, I can’t hear them, so you’re going to have to talk to me. How do you know other people can?” she asked, gently.

“It’s the way they look at me, like they know something awful about me. And Varric, earlier – he was criticising my thoughts I _know_ he was.”

Varric? Earlier? It took a minute for Hawke to place the moment.

“I don’t think he-“

“He did, I swear!”

“Okay, okay,” Hawke said, stepping up to Anders and placing a hand on his back. “Whatever the Templars may have done, I can’t hear anything. So you’re safe with me.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, like a child checking that there are no monsters in the closet.

“I’m sure,” she said. Thinking quickly, she added, “I can undo it for you.”

“Please, do. Quickly.”

Hawke took out her staff and pointed it at Anders. She cast a warming spell – it was the first thing she thought of that felt ‘magic-y’ - and then put the staff away.

“That’ll have fixed it, for sure,” she said.

“Thank-you. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”


End file.
